Save lives, cut the deficit, and give people the freedom to help sick children.

How could anyone be against that?

And yet, efforts are afoot in Congress to repeal the new health care reform law known as the Affordable Care Act before it's even fully implemented as planned over the next three years. In fact, there's a vote scheduled in the House on January 19th to take up this matter.  This direction is bad for our children and our nation.  After all, health care reform is already keeping more kids healthy by stopping insurance companies from dropping or excluding children from coverage due to pre-existing conditions or capping their coverage just when they need it most.

We’re already hearing from Nevada parents that the Affordable Care Act is making a critical difference for Nevada families.

Mari from Reno, Nevada writes:

After my daughter went into remission for cancer, her insurance company was trying to drop her. They said they would only continue coverage if she were in school fulltime. It was impossible for her to be in school fulltime when she was still suffering the effects of chemo. Now that the reform is in place, we no longer have to battle the insurance companies to keep her on the rolls.

I, myself, have a pre-existing condition for which I could not be covered. Once the expanded Medi-caid goes into effect in 2014, I will have affordable coverage. It gives me piece of mind knowing I will not have to scramble to pay my costs forever. I just have to ride it out a little longer. I hope this isn't taken away from me. It's the 1st grain of hope I've had in awhile that I will not die an early death from lack of treatment.

And Valerie from Boulder City, Nevada writes:

I am a Speech Language Pathologist in the fifth largest school district in the nation, Clark County School District, Las Vegas, Nevada. Approximately 350 young people (the sons and daughters of my colleagues under age 26) now have health insurance through our Teachers Health Trust. My colleagues no longer have the nagging fear that their sons and daughters may need heath care and that their families could be bankrupted by medical bills. I am hopeful that my students, many with developmental delays and birth defects like cleft palate...can no longer be considered to have "pre-existing conditions". My students need to be healthy in order to be ready to learn. Health Care Reform is benefiting students and teachers and impacts educational achievement!

Indeed, repealing the Affordable Care Act wouldn’t protect personal freedoms.  It would, instead, take them away and put more power back in the hands of insurance companies.  That's not good for our families.  In fact, the new benefits under the law have freed millions of Americans from worrying that they'll lose or be denied insurance, providing tax credits for small businesses to purchase coverage for their employees, and provided more affordable prescriptions for seniors on Medicare. In other words, the new law is giving people more freedoms and more choices.

Moreover, full implementation of the Affordable Care Act will actually cut the deficit: The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the savings from the sweeping legislation will more than offset the cost of expanding coverage to some 30 million uninsured, reducing the federal deficit over the next 10 years.  And according to Harvard Economist David Cutler, repealing the law would prevent 250,000 to 400,000 jobs from being created annually over the next decade.

The costs of repealing the Affordable Care Act are too high for Nevada’s families and businesses. And let’s not kid ourselves.  Going without health care isn’t freedom. For too many people, like Mari and her daughter, it could be a death sentence.  So we ask the Members of Congress in Nevada who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, what will you say to Mari and her daughter if you repeal this law and her health insurers drop her because she is too sick from chemotherapy to go to school full time?  Are you standing up for Nevada's families?  Really?

Note:  For more info on the price of repeal of the Affordable Care Act for Nevada see:  Price of Repeal factsheet